In the Hall of the Martian King [Mass Market Paperback]

John Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2003

A Martian monarch has taken possession of a priceless relic: the lifelog diary of the mysterious messiah who founded the Wager, the religion that forms the basis of all interstellar society. The Hive Intel conglomerate wants the lifelog and hires Jak to get it. It's a simple job, until other spies-including Ambassador Dujuv, Uncle Sib, and Jak's evil ex-girlfriend-arrive on Mars and turn the assignment into a wild ride of mind control, murder, and looming interplanetary war. For the lifelog contains a devastating secret that can overturn the status quo of whole worlds-a secret that Hive Intel will suppress at all costs. In the past, Jak has completed missions by betraying his friends. Now in order to succeed, Jak Jinnaka must betray the entire human race...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To the delight of sci-fi fans, the scoundrel-hero Jak Jinnaka returns for another tale of high adventure, spying, double-crossing and intergalactic mischief. Just when Jak thinks that looking out for his boss's teenaged relative and trying to keep his visiting, infamous uncle from wreaking havoc will be the trickiest tasks he'll have for a while, he is ordered by the Hive intelligence agency to obtain the newly discovered diary of the progenitor of the "Wager"-the rules upon which their entire legal, spiritual and ethical system rests. The first problem he encounters is that the people he officially works for want him to steal the diary for them; the second arises when he's commanded to steal it for his ex-lover, the Princess of Greenworld, who has used mind control to make him her sex slave; then several old, dangerous friends become involved. A glance at the chapter headings-"A Double-Sided Snipe Hunt"; "A Panty Raid Is Not Standard Procedure"-will give readers an idea of the kind of fun they're in for, and Barnes's invented slang ("toktru" means very true or really; "tove" stands for lover or best friend) will keep them grounded in this fun, futuristic realm. With its eccentric characters and jaunty storytelling, Barnes's (A Princess of the Aerie) romp is irresistibly engaging.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Still suffering from Princess Shyf's brutal mental conditioning (see A Princess from the Aerie [BKL Ja 1 & 15 02]), 18-year-old Jak Jinnaka is now junior administrator of the Martian moon Deimos, and with his buddies Dujuv and Shadow on the Frost nearby, comfortable. Well, except for his secret agentry for the Hive (his home world), the king of Mars, and maybe others. So he has nightmares. His routine is really disrupted, though, when the boss takes four months' vacation, leaving him in charge during the week that his spymaster, Uncle Sib, shows up. Sib around usually means trouble, so Jak isn't surprised when a potentially government-toppling discovery is made on Mars. He is then reunited with his oldest friends and a few enemies in a struggle for the Martian prize that entails rollicking adventure and pointed commentary on the human penchant for ridiculous, corrupt leadership. A final confrontation brings sorrow and insight, leaving Jak a little wiser and eager for the next adventure. Ditto the fans of this funny, perceptive, habit-forming series! Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446610836
• ISBN-13: 978-0446610834
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.9 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,212,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My thirtieth commercially published novel will be coming out in spring 2012. I've published about 4 million words that I got paid for. So I'm an abundantly published very obscure writer.

I used to teach in the Communication and Theatre program at Western State College. I got my PhD at Pitt in the early 90s, masters degrees at U of Montana in the mid 80s, bachelors at Washington University in the 70s; worked for Middle South Services in New Orleans in the early 80s. I do paid blogging mostly about the math of marketing analysis at TheCMOSite and All Analytics. If any of that is familiar to you, then yes, I am THAT John Barnes.

There are also many Johns Barneses I am not. I am not the British footballer, the Australian rules footballer, the former Red Sox pitcher, the Tory MP, the expert on ADA programming, the biographer of Eva Peron, the authority on Dante, the mycologist, the travel writer, the guy who does some form of massage healing that I don't really understand at all, the oil executive, the film historian, or that guy that Mom said was my father. I do wish I'd written that book on titmice, though.

I used to think I was the only paid consulting statistical semiotician for business and industry in the world, but I now know four of them. So now I have a large market share of a growing field.

Semiotics is pretty much what Louis Armstrong said about jazz, except jazz paid a lot better for him than semiotics does for me. If you're trying to place me in the semiosphere, I am a Peircean (the sign is three parts, ), a Lotmanian (art, culture, and mind are all populations of those tripartite signs) and a statistician (the mathematical structures and forms that can be found within those populations of signs are the source of meaning). The branch in which I do consulting work is the mathematics and statistics of large populations of signs, which has applications in marketing, poll analysis, and annoying the literary theorists who want to keep semiotics all to themselves.

I have been married three times, and divorced twice, and I believe that's quite enough in both categories. I'm a hobby cook, sometime theatre artist, and still going through the motions after many years in martial arts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Man of the Wager, October 8, 2003

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Hall of the Martian King (Mass Market Paperback)

In the Hall of the Martian King is the third novel in the Jak Jinnaka series, following A Princess of the Aerie. In the previous volume, Jak and his friend help stymie a plot to unite the Mercurian miners against the rest of human space. Jak and friends also manage to escape from the clutches of Princess Shyf, although he is still partially conditioned to love her.

In this novel, Jak is working for the Protectorates Administrative Services Corps as vice-Procurator of Deimos, the smaller and outer moon of Mars. The most exciting thing that has happened is welcoming Uncle Sib to Mars during his two-hundredth birthday Big Circuit. He has just seen his boss off for a vacation on the Hive and has barely settled into the expected boredom, when he receives a "For Your Eyes Only" message from Hel Faczel, the head of PASC, telling him that a extremely important religious artifact has been found on Mars.

Jak is instructed to turn over his duties to his staff and to go to Mars as soon as possible. His vacationing boss also calls to congratulate him on the assignment, to remind him that he is well prepared, and to request that Jak take Pikia, his great-great-granddaughter, on the mission with him. Jak and Pikia fly down to Mars together in the warshuttle John Carter.

Jak is head of the mission to Red Amber Magenta Green, the Harmless Zone kingdom where the artifact was found, but Hive Intelligence wants him to defer any credit for its success to Clarbo Waynong, a scion of a famous family slated for high office. Unfortunately, to say that Clarbo lacks proficiency as a agent is more than an understatement; it would be totally misleading. Clarbo is so narcissistic and self-absorbed that he can't even understand why people don't always follow the script that he has provided them.

Jak is determined to do everything he can to complete the mission successfully, for Hive Intelligence has promised to completely de-condition him from Shyf's influence if he succeeds. He suppresses his good sense several times to keep Clarbo in the mission, thereby really irritating his friends. However, Jak knows that he is only being a good citizen of the Hive, following the dictates of the Wager.

This novel takes Jak's alienation from his friends even further, causing him even more mental pain. However, he receives unexpected help from a little known Martian kingdom, Paxhaven, that provides him with an additional source of strength. Moreover, he discovers a new friend and competent ally in Pikia.

Once again, the reader is agitated at the machinations of Hive Intelligence and its manipulation of Jak and his friends. Although Jak does everything he can to achieve the goals set for him, the game is rigged against him. The artifact, an old-fashioned lifelog, provides an explanation for some of the Machiavellian maneuvering of the Hive and other human polities as well as the problems that Jak has keeping "toves". This installment suggests the possibility of some redemption of Jax later in the series.

Recommended for Barnes fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of intrigue and adventure in the far future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bleak and Cynical, August 31, 2004

By 

David Hood (Wesley Chapel, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Hall of the Martian King (Mass Market Paperback)

As the series continues, it becomes clear that however well-meaning, or not, Jak tries to be that he is merely a puppet being controlled and manipulated by layer upon layer of machinations and organizations he cannot even fathom.

Barnes' world building is still very good, and the likeable cast of characters returns. He doesn't pull punches either with major and minor characters subject to terminal events.

Though I vehemently disagree that this series is satire, there was some mild humor with the incompetent hereditary politician that Jak is assigned to make shine.

However the strengths of the work are overshadowed by the bleak and cynical way Jak is used and abused by his teachers, his government and his "friends" as well as the way Jak is forced to use and abuse his friends as well.

I give this one a 3.5 that I round up to 4.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More intriguing political intrigue in the 36th century, October 28, 2003

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Hall of the Martian King (Mass Market Paperback)

Here is the third novel in John Barnes's ongoing chronicle of the life and times of Jak Jinnaka, a young man in a 36th Century Solar System. Jak is a citizen of the Hive, a huge space habitat at the Earth/Sun L5 point. In the previous books, we have followed his career as a part-time secret agent, and somewhat of a celebrity, due to his involvement in a couple of high-profile adventures. As this book opens, he has graduated from the Hive's Public Service Academy, and taken a job as Vice Procurator of the Hive's base on the Martian moon Deimos. At the same time he is secretly an agent of Hive Intelligence. His life is further complicated by his continued conditioned attraction to his former girlfriend, the sadistic Princess Shyf of Greenworld, a nation of the Aerie (at the Earth/Sun L4 point). All he wants is to be cured of this conditioning, and to get a more exciting job. But his bosses at Hive Intel have a use for him in his present state and position.

The crisis driving the main action of In the Hall of the Martian King is the discovery of a lifelog of Paj Nakasen, the originator of the "Wager", a quasi-religious set of principles that lies at the heart of 36th Century human society. This lifelog was discovered at an archaeological dig in one of many tiny Martian nations. Many entities want this document, and such people as Jak's much-loved Uncle Sib; Princess Shyf; and a silly but highly placed fellow diplomat are all involved in the search.

All this leads to an amusing series of comedies of errors, as various attempts are made to obtain (by fair means or foul) the lifelog. Much of the book is rather funny, and much is quite exciting. Barnes gives us an impressive set-piece or two while the McGuffin is tussled over. But it's not all funny -- there is serious speculation about the proper organization of society, and there is some wrenching tragedy as well. Good people die. And the information in the lifelog itself turns out to have potentially catastrophic repercussions for Jak's society.

As with all the novels in this series, the wheels-within-wheels of the plot are almost exhausting, and not quite believable. But Jak is an interesting and ambiguous character, well worth reading about. The action of the books is quite enjoyable, even if not always what it seems on the surface. Barnes tackles some interesting ideas, though I think he stacks the decks of his arguments on occasion. The background details of the social order, the technological underpinning, and the varied cultures of the 36th Century Solar System are just delightfully presented. I'm really enjoying these novels.